March 26, 2010

The phrase “Agile in the Large” is one I’ve heard used a number of times over the last year in discussions about scaling up agile delivery. I have to say that I’m not a fan, primarily because it entails some pretty significant ambiguity. That ambiguity arises from the implied question: Agile What in the Large? So far I have encountered two flavours of answer:

1.) Agile Practices in the Large
This is the common flavour. It involves the deployment of some kind of overarching programme container, e.g. RUP, which is basically used to facilitate the concurrent rollout of standard (or more often advanced) agile development practices.

2.) Agile Principles in the Large
This is the less common, but I believe much more valuable, flavour. It involves taking the principles for managing complexity that have been proven over the last ten years within the domain of software delivery and re-applying them to manage complexity in wider domains, in particular the generation of return from technology investment. That means:

No more Big Upfront Design: putting an end to fixed five year plans and big-spend technology programmes, and instead adopting an incremental approach to both budgeting and investment (or even better, inspirationally recognising that budgeting is a form of waste and doing without it altogether – thanks to Dan North for the pointer)

Incremental Delivery: in order to ensure investment liability (i.e. code that has yet to ship) is continually minimised

Retrospectives and Adaptation: a test-and-learn product management culture aligned with an iterative, evolutionary approach to commercial and technical strategy

When it comes down to it, it seems to me that deploying cutting-edge agile development practices without addressing the associated complexities of the wider business context is really just showing off. It makes me think back to being ten years old and that kid at the swimming pool who was always getting told off by his parents “Yes Johnny I know you can do a double piked backflip, but forget all that for now – all I need you to do is enter the water without belly-flopping and emptying half the pool”.